ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - George Washington's formula for success at the Atlantic 10 tournament was simple: Use pressure defense to force turnovers and turn the takeaways into points.
It worked well enough that the Colonials earned their third consecutive NCAA tournament berth with a 78-69 win over Rhode Island Saturday in the A-10 championship.
Carl Elliott scored 17 points and three teammates also scored in double figures for George Washington, but it was the Colonials' defensive intensity that left opponents off-kilter from the opening tap of the tournament.
In all three of its three games, George Washington forced at least 20 turnovers. The ripple effect was evident Saturday as the Colonials had 66 field-goal attempts to the Rams' 55. Dokun Akingbade scored a career-high 15 points and had a game-high nine rebounds.
"That was the key to us in this tournament: creating turnovers," coach Karl Hobbs said. "And in the midst of that, it allowed us to keep Dokun in for long periods of time and he was able keep them off the boards."
Maureece Rice scored 12 points and Regis Koundjia had 11 for George Washington (23-8), which won the conference tournament two years ago and was an at-large NCAA selection last year.
The 2005-2006 team went 16-0 in the regular season but lost in the conference tournament quarterfinals to Temple, then reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing against No. 1 seed Duke to finish 27-3.
Those accomplishments effectively lowered expectations for this year's team, a development that helped the Colonials when the conference tournament arrived.
"There was really no pressure on us," Rice said. "We played looser, played our game. That was the difference from last year."
Will Daniels scored a career-high 29 points for Rhode Island (19-14), which was appearing in its first tournament final since 1999. Jimmy Baron and Kahiem Seawright, who scored 17 points each in the Rams' 79-71 upset of top seed Xavier Friday night, were held to 10 and eight, respectively.
On many possessions, the Rams seemed hesitant to shoot and instead opted to make the extra pass or two, which frequently served only to run the shot clock down.
"They take you out of things and you have to slow it down," Rhode Island Jim Baron said. "We wanted to make the extra pass, be patient and be poised. You've got to make good decisions, but we just turned it over."
George Washington led by eight at halftime and by 11 midway through the second half but couldn't shake the Rams, particularly Daniels, who was the only Rhode Island player to score in the half's first seven minutes.
Daniels' dunk off a steal and a jumper by Keith Cothran cut the Colonials' lead to 66-62 with 2:55 left, but Akingbade scored in the lane and Rice sank two free throws to extend the lead to eight points. George Washington made 10 free throws in the final 1:38.
As in its quarterfinal and semifinal wins, George Washington's pressure defense took Rhode Island out of any rhythm it tried to establish early in the game. The Rams turned the ball over 15 times in the first half, leading to 19 points for the Colonials.
Three of the turnovers came in the final two minutes after the Rams had closed the gap to 40-36, and allowed George Washington to take a 44-36 lead into the intermission.
Rice was named the tournament's most outstanding player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by Elliott, Seawright, Daniels and Xavier guard Drew Lavender.
No comments:
Post a Comment